This invention relates generally to mastitis treatment and prevention in mammals and, more particularly, to a method and composition of a non-antibiotic nature.
Mastitis has long been recognized as a complex disease of major economic significance to the dairy industry. While the disease is of primary concern to the dairy cow industry in the United States, it is also a considerable problem among goat herds and other commercial milk producing mammals. The disease is less prevalent but by no means unknown among swine and other species.
Mastitis may be defined as any inflammation of the mammary gland due to the effects of infection of the gland by bacterial or mycotic pathogens. Various factors can contribute to the onset of the infection including trauma, unsanitary conditions and direct or indirect contact with infected animals. With modern automatic milking equipment, if careful procedures are not followed, the risk of precipitating and spreading mastitis is great. The disease is, of course, not limited to animals being milked for human consumption but is encountered by nursing mothers in all species.
The best control for mastitis is optimum managerial practices with regard to milking, if applicable, and general herd management. Even with the best management practices, however, the disease cannot be completely eradicated and heretofore has been controlled only through the use of antibiotics. As these drugs have been widely used for a number of years, the pathogens have built resistance to them creating an automatic need for increasing dosages of existing antibiotics, and requiring the development of still further antibiotics to combat the more resistant strains.
The present invention addresses the problem of treating and preventing mastitis by changing conditions within the mammary gland so that the pathogens are unable to continue to exist and reproduce. Specifically, the present invention provides for introduction into the mammary gland of a quantity of useful bacteria which will produce sufficient lactic acid to lower the pH of the milk within the gland thus changing the environment so that the pathogens can no longer reproduce. The lactic acid production creates the isoelectric point of casein which causes the casein to precipitate. The pathogens will be trapped within the precipitate which serves as a vehicle for their removal. The gland is milked by hand to accomplish this.